In Ieper (Ypres) today there are two great memorials to the fallen of the First World War, perhaps the best known of which is the Menin Gate. St George’s however, is of equal importance in regards to perpetual remembrance and is an active, vibrant church serving the local community and thousands of annual visitors.

In Ieper (Ypres) today there are two great memorials to the fallen of the First World War, perhaps the best known of which is the Menin Gate. St George’s however can be viewed with equal importance in regards to perpetual remembrance.

Join us to support and keep up to date with all that is happening at St George’s and helping to promote interest in this unique church. The Friends have been in existence for almost 60 years, co-operating with other organisations in Belgium and the UK for the benefit of the church and making grants for specific projects.

You will receive two newsletters per year, discounted rates on our Annual Pilgrimage to the Salient and knowledge that you are helping maintain that all important link between the Church and the wider world. Membership starts at £10 per year for individuals/families and £20 per year for associations and corporate bodies.

Our Annual Five Day Pilgrimage is being planned for 2019. This will take place from in late April or early May This has proven to be a moving trip for all those who have taken part in previous years. More details will be circulated with our November newsletter

A half-written poem, a field of poppies and a series of strange meetings mark the past of four generations of a farming family from the Belgian town of Ieper. In his favourite place, looking across at the Poppy Field, Max listens as his Grandpa tells him the story of endurance and love that he knows so well – “It’s our story, my story, the family story.”

“The best known poem of the First World War is probably ‘In Flanders Fields’, by the Canadian John McCrae,” says author, Michael Morpurgo. “I wrote Poppy Field around the creation of that much read, much loved poem and set in a field in Flanders near Ieper, the story of a soldier poet, his poem and a Belgian family caught up in the fighting. We often forget the families, the civilians who suffered and so often died. We forget too that the suffering and dying goes on for so many, long after the war has ended. They should be remembered too.”

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